


You Need A Wife... err... Fandom

by Franzeska



Series: March Meta Matters [2]
Category: Fandom - Fandom, Multi-Fandom
Genre: Meta, Multi, Native American Character(s), Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:16:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22986199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Franzeska/pseuds/Franzeska
Summary: Meta about recs and Native characters from 2016
Series: March Meta Matters [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1664836
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	You Need A Wife... err... Fandom

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to Tumblr January 19th, 2016. I'm uploading it here on March 2nd, 2020--the second day of the March Meta Matters Challenge.
> 
> https://olderthannetfic.tumblr.com/post/137668023994/the-other-day-i-reblogged-that-name-one-indian
> 
> It's primarily a recs post, but it does have a little meta at the beginning.
> 
> It got a total of two likes and no reblogs. Quelle Surprise.
> 
> Also, Grimm jumped the shark hard, but you should totally still get into Chee & Leaphorn.

The other day, I reblogged that “name one Indian” post. It was more about whether you can name anybody IRL, including politicians and such, but Tumblr is full of fandom, so it reminded me of the usual “Ship this for Great Justice” wank where we all accuse each other of shipping too much whitecock. I have yet to see any uptick in fannishness about POC come out of that wank, just a lot of depression and anxiety followed by people not writing/drawing/vidding anything at all.

LBR, there are just some canons most of us don’t get inspired to make fanworks about, and serious, depressing Real Life Issues guilt trips are at the top of that list. Sadly, most of the stuff with Indians that I was exposed to in school falls squarely into this category. The thing is, there is plenty of other media with Indians that is actually fun and doesn’t leave me wanting to stab myself in the eye, but nobody ever recs any of it, so here’s a list. These things all fulfill two criteria:

1\. They involve cops, detectives, sff, iddy manpain, hoyay, shippiness, and/or hot people

2\. They were written by an Indian and contain Indian characters (if text) or contain Indian characters played by Indian (First Nations/Métis/Native/etc.) actors (if live action).

**Chee & Leaphorn**

Wait, aren’t those books by a white guy? Yes, they are, but the three TV movies star the delectable Adam Beach, Wes Studi, and Sheila Tousey and guest star most of the usual suspects.

Jim Chee is an eager beaver young member of the Navajo Tribal Police trying, mostly in vain, to impress his boss, Joe Leaphorn. The novel series mentions that Joe has a wife approximately once–until she dies and then it drones interminably about how she was the love of his life. (Snore.) In the TV version, Emma Leaphorn is around to tease Joe and be hilarious. Both versions feature mysteries that make great use of the setting in and around the Navajo reservation.

Watch this one if you want a boss/subordinate ship or… well… see the quote above.

**Longmire**

Longmire is another series of books by a white guy. This TV adaptation is longer: three cable seasons before it moved to Netflix for season four. The series revolves around Walt Longmire, a sherif in a Wyoming town near the Northern Cheyenne reservation, his deputies, and his better half best friend Henry Standing Bear.

The TV version added a bland, young white guy, but it also gave us cranky reservation police chief Mathias (Zahn McClarnon) and dastardly villain Jacob Nighthorse (A Martinez) along with another who’s-who of native guest stars. (No, really, I think the stars of Chee & Leaphorn are the only ones who haven’t turned up yet.) Both versions have a raft of interesting characters, many of them Cheyenne or Crow, and both deal with tribal affairs in many of the cases. (And the TV series seriously remixes all of the cases, so one won’t spoil you for the other.)

Henry is my absolute favorite in the books. In the TV series, he’s played by Lou Diamond Philips, and he’s still wonderful, but he doesn’t get as much screen time as I’d like. The books are also set longer ago and are murkier about everyone’s age, so Henry can have a ridiculous Vietnam War super commando backstory and participated in the occupation of Alcatraz. The show has not devoted nearly enough time to Henry being a ninja or to Henry being an obnoxious foodie at Walt, micromanaging his life, and trying to coach him through dates. (And when I say “trying to coach him”, yes, I do mean that there’s a part in book 1 where Henry attends said date to make sure Walt doesn’t fuck it up.)

Watch this one if you like to ship old guys who have been friends since childhood. And read the first book. Oh god, read the first book. Sadly, this rec makes it obvious how it turns out, but… dude… Walt spends the whole book suspecting Henry of the righteous murder of some scumbag rapists and angsting about it. And then comes the wilderness survival and “Go on without me” shtick. (And so. Much. Guilt.) If you like slashy, h/c-y Westerns, both the books and the show are the modern day version. They also feature iron woobie Vic, if iron woobie ladies are your thing.

**Dreadfulwater Mysteries**

This is a two book series by Thomas King about a disillusioned ex-cop who has moved home to the Cherokee reservation. Shenanigans ensue. (The author’s observations on men who say they like strong women and how men react to actual strong women were fucking hysterical.) Book 2 is a ripped from the headlines riff off of the death of Anna Mae Aquash.

Read these if you like funny mysteries with a lot of local color.

**Big Eden**

Remember when Eric Schweig was in a gay movie? I only know this from Festivids, but it looks cute.

**Smoke Signals**

This is an adorable coming of age film adapted from Sherman Alexie’s short stories. (Where “adapted” means Alexie wrote his characters into a coherent and less depressing plot.) Adam Beach plays Victor Joseph (an Angry Young Man). Evan Adams plays Thomas Builds-the-Fire—the most adorable epic dork in any piece of media ever made. Everyone else ever is also in this (Gary Farmer, Tantoo Cardinal, Irene Bedard…) Yuletide has yet to sate my needs for Victor/Thomas.

Oh my god, IMDB tells me that Michael Greyeyes’ character is Junior Polatkin. Which reminds me…

**Everything else Sherman Alexie has ever touched**

Ah, Sherman Alexie. Has any straight author ever written so much super gay stuff? What was going on with Victor Joseph and Junior Polatkin? What was going on with anyone and Thomas? What’s with that story where Alexie’s self insert picks up rough trade, gets fucked in a motel room, and then thinks about salmon? The Business of Fancydancing is his gay movie; the rest of his work is just deeply subtextually homoerotic. Well, aside from that self insert one.

**Thunderheart**

Don’t watch it for Val Kilmer: Watch it for Graham Greene. (No, not the dead spy/author. The actor who you will also find in every single other thing with Indians if it has a large enough cast or goes on for long enough.) It’s about the FBI investigating political shit on a reservation. It makes this list for being a perennial Yuletide nomination.

**Grimm**

No, really! The Latino stuff is more plentiful, but Grimm had a great episode about the local reservation (which was, of course set up in some other episode because Grimm actually remembers all the balls it has in the air—even if I’ve usually forgotten them by the time the show gets back to them three seasons later). I keep doubting this show, and it keeps proving me wrong… eventually. (Ah, endless network seasons and your pacing problems…) Grimm gets mega points for that moment when the characters are like: “How the hell is a native mythological monster from the Great Lakes popping up in a reservation in Oregon?”

That’s just the stuff that I’m fannish about or that people on my f’list are fannish about. So what fun media am I forgetting? What did people think of The Red Road? Worth a look? Too dark? Unjustly canceled before its time? I know there’s some YA fantasy out there by native authors, but I don’t read YA fantasy.


End file.
